Moving

[Greg Narozniak]

OK All I need some advice. We will be moving from Freehold, NJ to Hillsborough NJ end of April beginning of March. The total distance is 40-50 miles at the most. We are having a moving company do the house but I think I have to move the shop for my own peace of mind. The two options I am considering are,
1. Rent a large box truck with a lift gate and get some friends and some beer and have at it. (No Beer until all the tools are safely in the new garage:) )

2. Rent a 16' PODS unit. They are rated for 8000lbs and have tie downs inside the unit and the units are always kept level.

The equipment is going from one garage to another. No Stairs or distance on the delivery side end.

The equipment is as follows. Almost all the large tools are mobile.

Unisaw with 50" biesemeyer
Yorkie Jointer
Oneida 2hp DC with 6" PVC duct work.
Grizzly Band Saw
Dewalt RAS
Jet DP
Jet Disk/belt sander
Router Table
CMS
Dewalt Planer
Craftsman/King Seely Lathe
26 Gallon Compressor
48" MAC Tool Box (Loaded)
Misc Hand and Power tools. (Started boxing a lot of it up.)

Let me know what you think and suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks

Greg

[Paul Held]

A truck with a liftgate and a few friends is all you really need. If you are going from one garage to another, it is simply a matter of getting the truck as close as you can. It would be a one day rental. Paul Held

[Jim DeLaney]

There's nothing there that should give the movers any problem. Let them do the work.

FWIW, I pondered the same thing prior to my cross-country move about a year or so ago, and ended up just letting the movers do it. I had a LOT MORE heavy equipment than you have. Allied Van Lines handled it with not so much as a scratch on anything. Didn't even knock the tablesaw, or its fence, out of alignment. Made a happy camper out of me!

[Jim Becker]

I had our movers move my shop in 1999 when we moved to this property...about 40 miles one-way. PODs didn't exist at that point and my friend Russ didn't own his lift-gate truck. Today, I might consider either of the latter two solutions for a short move, but you know...moving is a big enough pain in the butt as it is without having to complicate things by moving heavy things personally. (The computers, plants and pets, yes...everything else...the movers) But it's understandable how that might not be comfortable for some. Do remember that different "rules" and rates apply to short, in-state moves like this with movers than with interstate moves, so be sure to understand insurance aspects, etc., for your specific situation.

[Silas Smith]

I just moved from Houston to Utah and had movers move the shop. The big question is are you paying for the movers or is your company paying for the move? Movers charge by the pound and my shop about doubled the load. At around 18K for the move, it would have been an expensive option if I had been paying for it. It would have almost been cheaper to sell the tools and buy new. That being said, they didn't really do anything special when they loaded the tools, they just made sure that they were secure and I didn't let them put anything on the jointer beds or such. I think that a couple of guys and some tie downs would be more than enough. My stuff traveled 1500 miles and I only had to spend about 2 hours getting everthing in the shop back in perfect alignment.

[Jesse Cloud]

I moved about 2K miles using PODS and would never do it again. Some of the problems: the PODS are relatively small and one or two odd shaped machines can really gobble up the real estate, the PODS we got were really beat up and the doors barely closed - even before the move, the company used for the move didn't have a presence at our destination city, so they partnered with another mover - who did not have all the fancy POD mover equipment the first one did - so the PODS did not stay level and the contents of a couple of them really got banged up, the schedule was really unpredictable - they arrived more than a week after we did. Your shorter distance move might work better, hard to tell. The one big advantage of the pods is that you can load and unload on your schedule.
I think your original idea about a tailgate rental truck, some buddies, and some beer sounds much better!!

[Tom Pritchard]

Greg, I would vote for the truck with the liftgate and your friends. Somehow I can't picture not being a part of moving my tools. It would be too hard for me to watch a complete stranger move them because I know they wouldn't give two hoots about what happened to them! Moving my tools into my shop with my friend Scott were some of the best times I could hope to have! (Sorry Scott, this does mean you will have to help me again someday. You better hope I can never afford to move:rolleyes:, or buy more heavy tools:eek: !) We still talk about the experiences we've had over coffee on a regular basis. Tools, friends, diesel, coffee, beer (later), laughs, stories...what more could you hope for!

Just my opinion Greg, Good luck with your decision!

[Barry O'Mahony]

Looks like the Unisaw and the jointer are the only really heavy things. It's a short distance you can make multiple trips if necessary.

I'd look at a U-haul truck, or an enclosed trailer (in the summer I'd look at one of their flatbed trailers). They are low to the ground; you should be able to get the heavy stuff up and down the ramp on dollys (how heavy is the jointer).

[Paul B. Cresti]

Greg,
You will be right down rte 206 from me I am in Skillman, good luck with the move. When I moved into my current house in 2003 (thank God I did not own what I have now :eek:) I rented a 40 ft box truck with a lift gate for the week. I took my time loading up the shop and many other items. We had movers handle the house. I also unloaded the truck at the new house during that weeks time also. My father and I loaded and my father, my brother-in-law and I unloaded...hence real cheap labor :D

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Let the movers do it and
Get an insurance rider for the move be sure to include the shop and get curren't replacement value for new equipment. It's not much money and you ought to have one anyway.

[Jay Knepper]

I moved a similar amount of equipment from the Chicago area to East TN a couple of years ago. Or, rather, I did the packing and Allied Van Lines moved it. I even moved a 4' by 8' x 6' high home-made cart mostly filled with hardwood. They wrapped a few turns of 3' wide plastic around the whole thing and rolled it onto the truck! It took maybe 2 minutes total to wrap and load.

The equipment arrived in fine shape.

Just managing the household part of the move is a real challenge. And when you think about it, an amateur is more likely to mess up a move than people who do it for a living.

[Norman Hitt]

All I can say, is that some folks here have sure had better luck with movers than I ever did. I'll move my own shop, thank you. When you load it, haul it and unload it yourself, (with helpful friends of course:rolleyes: ), at least you KNOW it will all be there when you unpack it.;), and I'll just bet it's a lot cheaper too, since there will be more time taken to load & unload than to make the trip.

Good Luck, whatever you do.

[Greg Narozniak]

Thanks to All for the info. Lots of good "food for thought" here.

Paul, I'll look forward visitng a "new neighbor" :)

Greg

[Ellen Benkin]

How young are you and how strong is your back? I helped a relative move once and swore that I would never do it again. What movers could do in a couple of hours took us several days. Supervise them closely, but let them do the grunt work. And give big tips!

[tod evans]

greg, in your case this may be overkill but for others reading it may prove useful... automobile wreckers with the tilt bed can set the bed on the ground and winch up several tons of dead weight quite smoothly. and are usually much more affordable than equipment movers..02 tod

[Jim Becker]

greg, in your case this may be overkill but for others reading it may prove useful... automobile wreckers with the tilt bed can set the bed on the ground and winch up several tons of dead weight quite smoothly. and are usually much more affordable than equipment movers..02 tod
Seems to me you'd need everything crated with a tilt bed wrecker and provisions on the crates to use quite a few straps and/or come-a-longs to safely load/unload...the angle would be pretty nasty for individual tools. This is one of the advantages of the PODs for this kind of thing as the container is deposited and picked up level.